ROCHESTER — The Rochester Elementary School Consolidation Coalition met Thursday night to discuss various avenues for effectively communicating with the public as well as the School District and City Council members.

The coalition, which was formed as a reaction to the School Board’s plan to rebuild East Rochester School, strives to end the ERS rebuilding plan and urges the board to consider consolidation of the city’s eight elementary schools. The project has been discussed for more than a year but was just presented to City Council in April. The School Board began working on the plan after a comprehensive space-study of the elementary schools deemed the partial-walls at ERS the most pressing issue among the schools.

The city has formed a joint building committee to review and take action, whether favorable or unfavorable, on the ERS plan. The committee is comprised of six members from the School Board and six from City Council. The group has yet to set an official first meeting.

The coalition discussed ways to reach this newly formed committee as well as other decision-makers in the community.

Reaching out the school Parent-Teacher Associations and sending people to City Council and School Board and committee meetings were discussed.

“There’s no guarantee that you’re going to have interaction with them. These (committee meetings) are bad forums to try to get feedback form the public, when they’re not required to respond back,” said Leonard. He added that while the dialogue between the officials and the public is lacking, “the goal is to pack these public input opportunities.”

Grassroots campaigns will be launched to reach the public. The group discussed creating and handing out fliers, standing roadside asking drivers to sign a petition to put an end the ERS project, and going door-to-door.

“We hope to get more people interested in this,” said Leonard.

The coalition hopes to make the public more aware of the project and its cost, which is currently estimated at around $13 million.

“They’re planning on doing this whole project with no building aid, all on the backs of taxpayers,” said Leonard.

The coalition plans to engage the public, something they think the School Board hasn’t done well.

The next meeting it tentatively scheduled for June 6 at 6:30 p.m. on the second-floor of the Rochester Public Library.